Proper effort is not the effort to make something particular happen. It is the effort to be aware and awake each moment, the effort to overcome laziness and merit, the effort to make each activity of our day meditation.
Interpretation
True effort is about mindfulness and presence rather than merely achieving specific outcomes.
In this quote, Ajahn Chah emphasizes that the essence of proper effort lies in being aware and present in each moment, rather than just striving for particular achievements. It suggests that genuine effort involves overcoming complacency and turning daily activities into a form of meditation, highlighting the importance of mindfulness in our actions.
In practice
A motivational speaker might use this quote to encourage mindfulness in the workplace.
Once you understand non-self, then the burden of life is gone. You'll be at peace with the world. When we see beyond self, we no longer cling to happiness and we can truly be happy. Learn to let go without struggle, simply let go, to be just as you are - no holding on, no attachment, free.
When sitting in meditation, say, "That's not my business!" with every thought that comes by.
If you haven't wept deeply, you haven't begun to meditate.
To observe and watch one's own mind is something really interesting. The untrained mind will run and follow its old habit patterns. Because it has not been trained and taught, it will get lost in all kinds of stories and issues. Therefore we have to train our mind. The meditation practice in Buddhism is all about training one's own mind.
Meditation is like a single log of wood. Insight and investigation are one end of the log; calm and concentration are the other end. If you lift up the whole log, both sides come up at once. Which is concentration and which is insight? Just this mind.
The heart is just the heart; thoughts and feelings are just thoughts and feelings. Let things be just as they are.
He who sees a need and waits to be asked for help is as unkind as if he had refused it.
Words are things. You must be careful, careful about calling people out of their names, using racial pejoratives and sexual pejoratives and all that ignorance. Don’t do that. Some day we’ll be able to measure the power of words. I think they are things. They get on the walls. They get in your wallpaper. They get in your rugs, in your upholstery, and your clothes, and finally in to you.
I adore the struggle you carry in yourself. I adore your terrifying sincerity.
It is awfully hard work doing nothing.
Old men delight in giving good advice as a consolation for the fact that they can no longer set bad examples.
You can't change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying about the future.
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